Xaemen
I am just wondering then, this feature almost making it like an FD with a one month tenure right ?
NO in important ways.
Cause the usual FD, you will only get the interest after you 'commit' the funds for a certain period of time e.g. 6 months. And if you were to withdraw any thing earlier, all the interest will be forfeited.
YES this is the way the banks are going to work this year on for FD like p0m6 or even for monthly p1m6.
So a monthly interest rate sounds like a rolling 1-month tenure FD right ?
NOT AT ALL IN IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES. You need to understand the differences (nitty gritty details/figures) critically not to be conned with loose thinking, jargon, sweet talk and advertisement.
The 1 month FD autoroll with or without autoaddon of interest is usually at a much lower 1 month rate which can be done with autorenew. It is for normal low board rates and not better promos rates which are usually from 3 months up with higher minimum placement requirement.
You cannot autorenew with with or without autoaddon of interest to principal at promo rate, but will always suffer big drop to lower FD board rate.
Would there be any way that I can commit my principal for, say, 6 months and I just get the interest on a monthly basis?
YES you can get a p1m6 FD at Bank Rakyat with a minimum principal of 5k a placement.
If yes, what's the consequences if I were to withdraw the principal earlier than 6 months ? Am I liable to some sort of clawback to the disbursed interests ?
The bank will take back all the FD interests paid monthly by deducting from the principal given back to you.
Allthough you do not end up with interest, the important difference is that you can consider it as getting back part of your principal earlier than on maturity date! The other important difference, is that also can gain Savings Interest if you leave it in the bank's Savings Account or transfer the monthly paid FD interest to another bank account with higher monthly rest Savings Account such as OCBC 360 to get from 0.5 - 4.1% p.a. or UOB EA up to 3.6% (with 50k EODB).
However, if you want a better return, you should avoid FD board rates, and choose the best promo deal with monthly payment of interest. This type of FD promo usually 12m and longer tenure.
There are also promo FD which pay every 3 months p3 or 6 months p6.
There are 3 major reasons why periodic payment of interest is attractive.
1) Earlier return of fund as interest or considered as principal return in case of early uplift before maturity.
2) The periodic (monthly) interest can be used for expenses and help cash flow.
3) The periodic interest can be added on to other available funds to make more FD. This can be at other banks wherever there is the best promo on at that time. This enables growing of FD at a faster pace than waiting for maturity to act. The time difference will make a significant contribution.
I used to have one major FD acct of 12 months then smaller amounts in 1 months (online) in case i might need to withdraw. I like to top up funds frequently but you cant do that with FD. Thats why now i place all my funds in ASMB as i can place funds or withdraw anytime but you can only get the dividend on financial year end.